Of War and Laughter · 6:17am Dec 3rd, 2015
One of the more interesting implications of the finale is that the Mane 6 received their exact same cutie marks regardless of the Rainboom. From a Pinkie perspective, what does this mean for her character in the alternate timelines, and what can this offer us for her in the correct timeline? Read on, aspiring Ponka lover.
Proof of cutie mark, by the by. Fluttershy has the same one in that timeline and Rarity has her one in the Nightmare timeline. So, despite all the Mane 6 being dressed up in the Sombra timeline, I'm going to assume that they have their same cutie marks.
The interesting thing about the Mane 6 is that their cutie marks are related to their Element, if not the direct cause of it. For example, Rainbow got her cutie mark for pulling off the Rainboom, proof of her speed and skill as a flyer, but the only reason she got the opportunity to receive her mark was because she was loyal to Fluttershy and stuck up for her. Likewise, Fluttershy got her cutie mark for her skill in communicating with animals but that only happened because she was a kind soul and looked after them. For Pinkie, her skill in partying was enough to bring cheer to the dull rock farm, which explains why she got Laughter.
Anyway, the point of this is to explain that regardless of the Rainboom, the Mane 6 would still get their cutie marks, just at different times/situations. For example, the Rainboom woke up Applejack to the realization that she needed her family but even if she never saw it, I think she would have come to the same conclusion a little later after being fed up with dealing with the Oranges' shit.
Thus, we can assume that in any timeline, Pinkie gets her cutiemark for holding a party of somekind. The Rainboom party was just for a party's sake. Perhaps, if she never saw the Rainboom, she'd hold a later party as a birthday party for one of her sisters. Thus, she'd still have that same element of cheer and optimism that she holds in the current timeline.
What point am I making here? Well, I'm trying to say that this:
Is the same character as this:
Mmm, delicious Pinkie thigh.
Sounds a little obvious on paper but I've seen people make a bit of a disconnect between War-Pinkie and normal Pinkie. They don't seem to believe that normal Pinkie would be capable of handling war, or even just straight up fighting some scrubs. They seem to think that War-Pinkie has a totally different personality because she's shown being quite capable in war.
And, well, they're not wrong but they're not right either. The truth is we don't know War-Pinkie's background. Yet the presence of cutie marks in the other timelines leads me to believe War-Pinkie and normal Pinkie have very similar characteristics.
I think the biggest question is whether War-Pinkie stayed on the farm or not, yet I don't think that's all too significant. Remember, Pinkie's canon cutie mark story has her throwing a party at the farm... and that's it. We don't see her leave the farm, or her family telling her to leave, it just ends. This implies that the decision for Pinkie to leave the farm was made independently of her cutie mark.
So you can argue for War-Pinkie staying on the farm all her life, or leaving it for Ponyville. That said, I think the ball is in the former's court. If Pinkie did move to Ponyville, Applejack would've heard of her and it's highly unlikely that the Apple farm was a factory all that time. Seems like they had to industrialize to help with the war effort. Additionally, normal Pinkie couldn't break that rock she was trapped on when Maud saved her. (You could argue for Pinkie cartoony inconsistency though. She's been shown to lift rocks with ease and even survive being crushed by them.)
If we assume War-Pinkie stayed on the farm, does this make for a depressed Ponk? Well, why should it? Staying on the farm doesn't mean Pinkie hasn't travelled and there's plenty of roles for her to fill. She could do the cooking and baking, freeing up her parents to get more work done. Advertising works too, with Pinkie going around Equestria selling the produce the farm makes. To say that staying on the rock farm would make Pinkie depressed is actually kinda sad, since it implies her family wouldn't accept her for who she is, and everything we've seen so far implies the opposite.
Now we get to the war itself. A totally unexpected one in itself, since the common pony wouldn't have known of Sombra's return in the first place. Pinkie gets conscripted and seems to handle herself just fine in battle.
"But Jake, she has a straight mane, that must mean she's all depressed and edgy!"
Literally shut the fuck up you retard. Are you really gonna sit there and tell me that this:
Is an acceptable mane for battle? Of course it isn't, sit back down. Pinkie's put her mane into many different styles before. This is just a cut suited for battle. I mean, almost bald would be better but...
...
Look, I'm just saying that there's a reason that Rainbow doesn't have as much fan art as the Sombra Rainbow.
Where was I? Oh, right. Battle.
See, we only see Pinkie in battle. Of course she's gonna act all serious in a huge war battlefield. She isn't stupid. And if you dare call my waifu stupid I'll write a bigass blog post just to prove how she's one of the smartest Mane 6 I'm serious I'll do it don't even try me.
Ahem.
What's she like in the off hours? Surrounded by troops, waiting for the next fight? I imagine she'd do what she does best.
She puts on a brave face.
She'd be right there with her troops, all she'd consider her friends, cheering them up and keeping up the morale. Pinkie may not be a good commander but by God, she'd be the best morale booster for her fellow pones. Would it be hard on Pinkie too? Of course, I'm not saying it wouldn't. But she's the type to hide her bad feelings from the rest of the world. The show has proved this many a time before.
So, yeah, War-Pinkie = normal Pinkie. They are merely in different circumstances, that require them to act differently.
Therefore, the best part about this is that show Pinkie is perfectly capable of being badass and handling war! That's some awesome stuff, man, you have no idea. Sure, she's nice but if the situation is dire enough, she can and will kick ass.
Let's not forget Chrysalis timeline Ponk too. Despite the even more dire situation those ponies are in, she's serious, yet retains that silliness to her (as well as her mane). I mean, that timeline is even worse than the war one. At least in the Sombra war, they have a chance of winning (a pretty good one honestly, after going through it analytically). In the Changeling timeline? They've already lost, it's an end of the world scenario.
Yet the Pink Ponk still pranks.
Honestly, I didn't need a big blogpost to come to what's a rather simple conclusion. We've seen Pinkie act serious before. She's laughed in the face of ghosties, encouraging her friends to carry on to Nightmare Moon. No regret was seen when she pulled out that party cannon, or used Twilight as a chaingun against the changeling hordes. And Pinkie was always the most suspicious and serious when it came to encountering Starlight's village.
But, y'know, any excuse to talk at length about muh waifu, right?
-JaketheGinger
P.S.
Ponk will beat you up. Rawr.
I REALLY hope we get to see more of that timeline in future episodes.
But, I somehow severely doubt we ever will XD':
To get some less sugary depictions of friendship on the show would be sweet!!
(see what I did there
)
This is the logical conclusion to come to based on the baseline cutie marks being present in multiple timelines... though on a Doylist level, it's a little disappointing. I can't help but suspect that someone decided that it was either easier to use the same marks or that there wasn't enough room in the script to explore alternatives. If the latter, they were certainly correct; just look at how much they had to fit into the ending.
Still, it's either work with what we're given or make an alternate universe of an alternate universe. Given the available data, I'd say you've hit the nail on the head. Pinkamena Diane Pie, 2nd Pulverizer Corps, is a fantastic morale officer, but that has little place on the battlefield.
Pinkie in a war situation would use Laughter in the manner of a Celtic berserker.
It seems like this kind of indicates cutie marks are invented subconciously by the pony, not handed down by destiny. Since the sonic rainboom happened roughly ten years(?) before Nightmare Moon, things were probably pretty similar for most of the mane 6 during that time period, except maybe for Fluttershy in that one timeline where she befriends the bullies (anyone else touched by the idea that even the worst of bullies can apparently be turned into helpful friends with a few well-chosen sentences?). So even without the Rainboom, they are still substantially similar fillies with similar desires and aspirations, so their cutie marks are similar.
In these various grim-dark futures, cutie marks for party planning and animal care may be less useful, but that is what your ten year-old self wanted, so that is what you got. What would be more interesting is to see what cutie mark the CMC have in this timeline, since they've grown up in a darker Equestria.
Not if I hug her first!